“With more than 20 years of experience, impeccable musicianship, and uplifting, heady music, Donna the Buffalo has become one of the premier Americana and roots-rock outfits on the eastern seaboard, if not the whole country.” ~ Ryan Whirty, Rochester City Paper

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Donna the Buffalo continues to stampede with the Herd this winter! They will be traveling through North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama before heading back up north to West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York before making the trek back down to Florida for the Inagural Virginia Key Grassroots Festival the 2nd weekend of February!

Travis Newbill wrote an awesome live review from Donna The Buffalo’s recent show at Revolution Live in Ft Lauderdale on Jan 9th! Some excerpts are below.

Donna’s groove is infectious, hypnotic and wholesome, subtly incorporating trance, reggae, and pop qualities into a sound which is Americana first and foremost. It is rootsy music offered by deep, sensitive players. At times they could be described as Mazzy Star, sped up and minus the echo, with an emphasis on allowing grooves to develop, peak, and come to rest.

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tara Nevins has the presence of an Americana shaman. Whether she is zoning with the tambourine, violin, washboard, accordion, guitar, or singing, she is visibly tapping into mystical energy, and inviting all those willing into that vast space. Ditto guitarist Jeb Puryear, whose eyes roll involuntarily into the back of his head while the rest of his body surrenders as well–possessed by the groove with jaw agape.

The band was locked in from start to finish Friday night while delivering their sweetly melodic songs and jamming extensively. The crowd was locked in as well. The audience was equal parts bluegrass, Grateful Dead, and reggae people — all friendly spirits. It is no wonder why this band has such a dedicated following. There is no other band that this writer has come across that does quite what they do. And they do it with a humble confidence and great joy. Click here for the full review in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

Photo credits: Full band shot by John D Kurc. Jeb Puryear by Gene Martin. Tara Nevins and Kyle Spark by Rich Orris.

Sun, Jan 22nd; starts around 7pm EST — Kix Country in Port Charles, FL — Studio session and interview with Jeb who will also play DJ with Virginia Key GrassRoots Fest Music on Larry’s Timko’s show “Down Home Cookin'”

MARTINSVILLE, VA. – A lights-laden performance from Grammy-nominated headliners the Infamous Stringdusters, two long sets from festival hosts Folk Soul Revival and a packed list of events at the workshop stage: These are just some highlights from the Rooster Walk 3 schedule recently released by event organizers.

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The Infamous Stringdusters, a progressive bluegrass band from Nashville, Tenn., will perform from 8:40-10:10 p.m. on the Creekside Stage at Blue Mountain Festival Grounds on Saturday, May 28. The band, which tours throughout the country and abroad, will be making its first trip to Rooster Walk.

“It sounds like a good time, and that’s largely one of the guiding principles of what we do these days: What sounds like the most fun, for us and for people who want to come be a part of it?” said Travis Book, a vocalist and upright bass player for the Stringdusters. “And Rooster Walk fits the bill. It’s gonna be a really great time, and that’s one of the most important things to us. Since we’re all just spinning around on this planet, why not try to enjoy it as much as possible?”

Roots-rockers Folk Soul Revival are the only band scheduled to perform during both nights of the festival. The group, which formed in Wise just three years ago, will play on the Blue Mountain/Bassett Furniture Stage from 10:25 p.m.-midnight on Friday, May 27. FSR will play one night later on the Creekside Stage from 5:30-6:50 p.m.

“We’re very excited to be a part of this and be the festival hosts,” said Folk Soul Revival guitjo player Justin Venable. “We’re pumped to play, and also we’re excited to be there as fans of the other bands. It’s gonna be a great time.”

Joanne Lane (left) and daughter Hunter Lane pause for a picture during Rooster Walk 2 on Memorial Day weekend, 2009.

Another new addition to the festival is the Arts at the Rives Theatre (ART) Workshop Stage, a smaller, temporary structure that will play host to nine activities on Saturday, May 28, ranging from children’s programs (painting, guided creek walk, drum circle) to yoga, songwriting and guitar workshops.

“We’re very excited about this year’s offerings at the ART Workshop Stage,” said Johnny Buck, a co-founder of Rooster Walk and an ART board member. “Being able to add programs like an educational children’s nature walk along Snow Creek, a Saturday-morning yoga class and a songwriter’s workshop will really compliment the atmosphere we’re trying to cultivate and promote. Music, the environment, education: Each one is a critical part of the Rooster Walk experience.”

Festival gates will officially open at noon May 27, with the Blacksburg-based kids rock band Levi’s Gene Pool getting things started at 4 p.m.

Mainstreet Moonshine, a band of Hampden Sydney College students that features Martinsville native Riggs Roberson on guitar, will play at 4:50, followed by the Stuart-based band Poverty Level at 5:50 and Relacksachian, of Roanoke, at 6:55.
Festival favorites Sanctum Sully will hit the Blue Mountain/Bassett stage at 8 p.m., followed by Charlottesville pop-troubadour Travis Elliott, Folk Soul Revival and jamband stalwarts the Kings of Belmont.

Gates will open at 8 a.m., on May 28, and the Pan United Youth Movement Steel Drum Orchestra will start the day’s music. The Martinsville Community Jazz Ensemble will perform at 11:35 a.m., followed by the Australian-born singer/songwriter Mariana Bell. Bluegrass behemoths Big Fat Gap will fire up at 1:45, and the soulful vocals of the Lizzy Ross Band will start soaring at 2:55.

Charlottesville rockers Rob Cheatham & GUNCHUX! Will play at 4:05. Folk Soul Revival will then perform on the Creekside Stage, followed by reggae-rocker Jesse Chong on the Blue Mountain/Bassett stage.

The Infamous Stringdusters will get going at 8:40, as Berkeley Dent of 81 Productions cranks up a full-fledged lights show. Guitar wizard Jamal Millner, of Jamal Millner and Comrades, will begin at 10:20 before giving way to The Mantras, a popular jamband from Greensboro, N.C., who will close out the festival.

A mother and daughter dance at Rooster Walk 2 on Memorial Day weekend, 2009.

Proceeds from Rooster Walk go to the Penn-Shank Memorial Scholarship Fund at Martinsville High School. The fund, like the festival itself, is named in memory of late Martinsville natives Edwin “the Rooster” Penn and Walker Shank. In just two years, festival organizers have donated $10,000 to the merit-based scholarship fund.

This year’s scholarship winner will be chosen from the current senior class at Martinsville High School. He or she will then be honored during the festival on May 28.

Tickets are currently $40 for a general admission weekend pass ($105 for VIP), and camping is $20 per vehicle with no limit to the number of occupants per vehicle. Tickets are available in the Martinsville area at the Southern Virginia Artisan Center uptown, Woodall’s Music in Collinsville and Binding Time Cafe in the Druid Hills shopping plaza.

ART WORKSHOP STAGE SCHEDULE:
Saturday, May 28
10-10:30 a.m. – Yoga
Join Allison Wilkie, the yoga instructor and fitness director of Chatmoss Country Club, as she leads you through a stretch of exercises that will get you ready for another awesome day of festival goodness.

11:05-11:35 a.m. – “Honey Bee Where Are You?”
“Honey bee, where are you?” is a serious question being asked around the world today. Honey bees are extremely important, but they are becoming extinct! Join Patrick County author Martha Scott as she reads her rhyming children’s book that explores life inside a honey bee colony. The book also gives ideas about how people of all ages can help these tiny, fuzzy insects continue their fight for survival.

Noon – 12:30 – Kids Painting with Redbeard
Jonathon Blake has been a fixture at Rooster Walk since Day 1, painting live performance art as the bands perform. Blake’s reputation as a performance painter is well established along the East Coast, and now he’s going to share some of his tips with kids at the festival. The result of the workshop will be a group-made painting.

1:05-1:45 – Songwriters workshop
We’ve brought together two accomplished young songwriters to discuss their craft. Travis Elliott (Charlottesville, Va.) has written about subjects ranging from love to spaceships on the way to a song catalog of more than 500. Lizzy Ross’ work has been drawing critical acclaim since she hit the scene in Chapel Hill, N.C. roughly three years ago.

1:50-2:30- Kids’ Creek Walk
Put on your water shoes and join Robin Jensen of the Virginia Museum of Natural History as leads a guided walk along – and into – beautiful Snow Creek. Children will learn about macroinvertebrates and aquatic ecosystems as well as the importance of protecting their environment.

3:35-4:05 p.m. – Guitar workshop
Two guitar masters from different disciplines will combine forces for a very special guitar workshop. Jamal Millner brings a jazz background and classical training, while John Garris has been playing bluegrass since he was old enough to hold the guitar. Both are incredible musicians.

4:15-5 p.m. – Tie Dye
Follow our group leader step-by-step as you tie dye your own Tshirt! Buy a Rooster Walk shirt from the Merchandise Tent or bring your own. Fun for the whole family.
5-5:30 p.m. – Kids Drum Circle
Bring your budding musician for the chance to play on bongo drums of various shapes and sizes. Led by Martinsville native Jeff Sharp, kids will try their hand at keeping a beat and making some music for all to enjoy.

6 p.m. – Joe Washrag Memorial Duck Race
Once, there was a band. A band so skilled that their every song was a perfect soundtrack to the incredibly popular duck race at Rooster Walk. … Though Joe Washrag has disbanded, their spirit lives on in the form of tiny plastic birds floating down Snow Creek, with great prizes awaiting the quickest finishers.

Original, and from the soul, Larry Keel has surfed the changing tides of traditional bluegrass, country, jam rock, roots reggae, and even the currently emerging indie-alt scene always honoring the pioneers that introduced Bluegrass and Mountain Music into popular culture. Larry Keel is an award-winning Acoustic Americana flatpicking guitarist, well known for his entirely unique song-writing, gravelly voice and lightning fast licks and his band, Natural Bridge is “consistently touted as the hottest, most provocative and most entertaining bluegrass band of this decade.”

Leo Weekly states, “Larry Keel’s website sports the countrified boast “Guitar Legend & Master Fisherman.” While I’m sure his unruly beard and general country demeanor support the latter (at least on a surface level), there’s no arguing the former. Whether you catch him in a solo setting, showing off his white-lightning acoustic fingerpicking, or in more fleshed-out musical digs with his Appalachian ensemble Natural Bridge, you’re likely to be transported to a place where moonshine flows aplenty and coal mines loom in the distance. While his rusty, bar-dweller vocals are strictly backwoods beauty, pigeonholing Keel’s versatile guitar playing would be a mistake. He’s capable of dizzying displays of virtuosity and calming, sermon-like reverence.”

Ryan Snyder with Yes! Weekly interviewed with Acoustic Syndicate’s Steve “Big Daddy” McMurry in preview for their show coming up on Saturday March 5th at the Blind Tiger in Greensboro. Here are some excerpts from the article. Be sure to click the link to the full interview!

As the Syndicate Family Grows, A New Album Finally Awaits

Acoustic Syndicate ready their first new material in years for their Saturday show in Greensboro.

There`s maybe no better way to sum up the outlook of Acoustic Syndicate circa 2005 than the words of Bryon McMurry on the Shelby folk-rock oufit’s song “It Was Good While It Lasted.” “Nothing lasts forever and we find out who we are,” he sang on the band’s 2000 album Tributaries, unaware then that it might be the band’s mantra in only a few years time as they entered an indeterminable furlough. The McMurrys — Bryon, Fitz and cousin Steve — knew just who they were: a close-knit group built upon rural values of sustainability and commitment to the family. When the two brothers began to experience growth in their own families, their incessant touring lifestyle of the past decade suddenly became an afterthought.

“Fitz and Brian were both having to be gone during pregnancies and the last thing we wanted to do is have our families suffer on account of what we’re doing,” said Steve. “It’s important for us to stay centered and understand what’s most important. It was the obvious thing to do at that point.”

The group was arguably going out at their peak. They had just released one of their best-received albums in 2004’s Long Way Round (Sugar Hill), and kicked off the album’s supporting tour with a return to the Bonnaroo Music Festival after performing the inaugural festival two years earlier. Steve says that show in particular was instrumental in that tour’s success.

Photo by Bright Life Photography

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At the urging of their booking agent Hugh Southard, the group started playing more and more shows around 2007, learning how to juggle being a working band and family men at the same time. The days of 180- 200 shows per year may be over for the band, but Steve says that being able to have their families present has engendered a new kind of creative freedom in them.

As of now, they’re not only looking to begin recording their first album in seven years, but their arrangement is growing as well. Bassist Jay Sanders invited a friend, dobro player Billy Cardine, to join the group for a performance at last year’s Asheville Earth Day Celebration, and Steve said they knew almost immediately that he was a perfect fit for the group.

The addition is progressive for the group’s sound, which Steve describes as being edgier than any other era of the band, and for the first time, they’ll be writing songs specifically to feature a certain instrument. They hope to hit Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville with the pool of 15-16 songs later in 2011, many of which Steve describes as being written from a deeper, more personal place than ever before.

“I always tried to keep songwriting away from my personal life, but there’s been a couple of things in my life with living and people dying. Some major influences that really changed my reality,” he said somewhat hesitantly. “I thought about it and thought about it, and sort of avoided writing anything about it, but something kept bugging me to do it.”

He added that the time away has allowed him and his cousins to refocus their creativity after admittedly becoming burnt out in the year before their hiatus. Reenergized as a group, Steve believes that the band is in as good of a creative place as they’ve ever been.

“When you get burnt out and you start to write songs from the gut, it’s just not good,” he said. “It’s better to be creative out of a desire to be creative and not a need to be creative.”

You could call it an attraction…a curiosity…an anticipation of surprise and delight.

But there’s a better word to describe what the music of The Greencards inspires.

Fascination.

If you’ve followed this multinational threesome over these past five years, you know the feeling. From their personal histories through the content of their work, grounded in deep musical tradition but elevated by breathtaking technique and conceptual adventurousness, there is ample reason for interest … for excitement …

For Fascination.

The Greencards 4th Album, Fascination, was released on 2009 by Sugar Hill Records.

“The Greencards are a little island of Truth and Beauty in a sea of artifice and mediocrity. What a fine group, and what a great collection of songs.” ~ Rosanne Cash

“Fascination, may be their most inventive yet – his musically curious album more than lives up to its title.” ~ Paste Magazine (April ’09)

In November, 2010 the Greencards independently launched the BUY A BRICK campaign to release a new album. Basically the band invited people to join in and help them make the album, by buying a brick that will have the donors name on the album artwork…The artwork section offically closed Jan 31st and The Greencards just announced through their facebook page today, “Justin Niebank [Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Kings Of Leon] is mixing the record as we speak and weaving his magic into the music”

Donna the Buffalo is on for a great weekend heading through Nashville, Greensboro, and Asheville. There are lots of great interviews for the shows which are posted below. Co-band leader, Tara Nevins, kicked of the day yesterday with a solo studio session on the Lightning 100 with Lt Dan. Then the band went over to the Loveless Barn for a Music City Rootsperformance with other amazing artist including Catie Curtis, The Cleverlys, The Black Lillies, and Rayland Baxter. Check out some wonderful pics from the night here.

DtB will be playing on Cannery Street tonight in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge with the Roy Jay Band, who is on the road with DtB for several shows this winter. Here’s a nice writeup in the Nashville Scene by Edd Hurt about the show:

Photo by Jim Gavenus

Folkies with a superior sense of rhythm are rare enough, but folkies with a good beat and a healthy disrespect for eclectic clichés are a national treasure. Hailing from the metropolis of Trumansburg, N.Y., Donna the Buffalo began playing their mixture of country, soul, zydeco and folk 20 years ago, and they’ve never sounded better. On their 2008 full-length Silverlined, songwriters Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear came up with such great songs as “Biggie K,” which may be the finest tune ever written about childbirth: “Though her stomach’s stretched and pulled / She’s never been more beautiful.” The quintet’s easy way with American roots music suggests a fusion of Brinsley Schwarz and The Holy Modal Rounders, and they make music that’s beautiful but never prettified. They say they have a couple of projects in the works, including a full-band effort and a solo record by Nevins. Read the original post at nashvillescene.com.

On Friday, January 28th, they head on over to Greensboro, NC to play at the new Blind Tiger. David McCracken, DtB’s B3 Hammond player, grew up in Greensboro and did this great interview with Eddie Huffman from GoTriad.com:

photo by Jim Gavenus

From the moment Greensboro native Dave McCracken first saw Donna the Buffalo play live, at MerleFest in 1997, he knew he belonged in the band.

“I watched them for the first time, and I remember I saw them move the organ across the stage,” McCracken says, speaking by phone from his mother’s house in Liberty. “I said out loud, ‘Man, that should be me.’ Ten years later — 10 years later! — it’s me. I swear, I don’t even know how that happened. I just knew it should be me for some reason.”

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Donna the Buffalo formed in 1989 in upstate New York but has made many N.C. connections in the years since — McCracken and North Wilkesboro’s MerleFest among them. The group signed with Sugar Hill Records, a fixture in Durham for more than two decades before the label moved its offices to Nashville, and the members of Donna the Buffalo founded the twice-yearly Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in rural Chatham County, now entering its eighth year.

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Jam band fans already knew McCracken viaFolkswaggin’, which started in Greensboro in 1994 and played at the Blind Tiger regularly.

“I really cut my teeth in that place,” he says. “That’s where I learned how to play keyboards. I’ve been playing there since ’97. I’ve gone through a lot of things in that place, and it means a lot to me. I’m looking forward to playing there again. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there.”

In recent years, McCracken has played at the Blind Tiger with Q-Bex, a version of the band Hobex which includes acclaimed drummer Jeff Sipe.

McCracken did a stint in Hobex about 10 years ago, and he played in a metal band called Perpetual Iniquity in Greensboro as a teenager in the late 1980s. But his musical ambitions go all the way back to his early childhood in the 1970s.

“Playing music for a living was seriously a dream I had when I was, like, 3,” McCracken says. “You know how Facebook reunites people so much? I reunited with somebody who was my friend until I was 5. He was like, ‘Wow, you’re playing music for a living.’ He said it wasn’t surprising at all because all I talked about back then was how I wanted to do it.”

Tara Nevins also interviewed for the Blind Tiger show. She spoke with Laura Graff from the Winston-Salem Journal. Here is a bit of the article:

Photo by Lewis Tezak Jr

Donna the Buffalo’s music belongs on the festival circuit — it’s an engaging mix of roots, bluegrass, reggae, country and New Orleans-inspired zydeco. . .

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“We just come from a base of traditional music,” said Tara Nevins, one of the band’s original members. Nevins formed the band with Jeb Puryear, and both play old-time fiddle.

“Over the years of playing fiddle music, we discovered other traditional music,” Nevins said. “We don’t do it on purpose, it’s just that we have a lot of music that we’ve been involved in over the years and that we love.”

Nevins, who started out playing the fiddle, bought an accordion about 20 years ago.

“That gave us a Louisiana flavor to our songs,” she said. “We just have a lot of musical influences, because of some of the different instruments we play, those flavors come out in our music.”

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Nevins just finished work on a solo album, “Wood and Stone,” which will be released on Sugar Hill in April.”Wood and Stone” is her second solo album. The last, “Mule to Ride,” showcased the fiddle and was, Nevins said, more “old-time bluegrass.” This new album, she said, showcases her songwriting.

“I’ve written pretty much everything on the record,” Nevins said. “It’s not all about the fiddle the way the first one was.”

She said the band is planning to return to the studio in late February to work on a new album.

“It’s going to be a collaboration,” Nevins said. “We’re inviting other artists that we’ve played at with festivals over the years — artists we admire.”

On Saturday, the band jumps on the bus over to Asheville to play the Orange Peel. The Mountain Xpress wrote a nice little blurb about the show and some of DtB’s Asheville connections:

Kyle Spark. Photo by Lewis Tezak Jr.

For years, upstate N.Y.-based, self-desribed “Cajun/ zydeco, rock, folk, reggae and country” band Donna the Buffalo has long had an Asheville connection through it’s bassist. First it was Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses) then Jay Sanders (Acoustic Syndicate). Now DTB has Massachusetts bassist Kyle Spark but the group (who has toured for 21 years) still makes its semi-annual trek South (DTB is likely to pop up at regional warm-weather festivals). . .

The Blind Tiger announces the grand opening of its NEW 1819 Spring Garden Street location with a special New Years’ Eve performance headlined by instrumental powerhouse Toubab Krewe who is touring in support of their new album TK2. The event is presented by Greenefields Productions. Doors for the Friday, December 31st celebration will open at 8pm with the new venue boasting of a higher capacity of 480, free parking, larger bathrooms and 5000 sq feet . The Jonathan Scales Fourchestra opens the show with music at 9pm. Ticket packages are $20 and include one ticket to the show, champagne toast, & complimentary hor d’oeuvres. They are available at www.theblindtiger.com

Click for more on TK2

The Blind Tiger’s grand opening celebration will be headlined by Asheville-based Toubab Krewe. Formed in 2005, Toubab Krewe has tenaciously honed their craft through relentless touring and a fierce dedication to carving out something they can truly call their own. The fruits of this hard work can be heard on their scintillating new long-player, TK2, out now on Nat Geo Music.

Some music cannot be found on a map or within iTunes categories. Some music is so original it seems snatched from the great, invisible substrata that runs below all human activity, a sound aching to be born without a flag or fixed allegiance– free, questing, overflowing with immediate, tangible life. This is the music of Toubab Krewe, the vibrant Asheville, NC-based instrumental powerhouse that creates a sonic Pangaea that lustily swirls together rock, African traditions, jam sensibilities, international folk strains and more. While nearly impossible to put into any box, it takes only a few moments to realize in a very palpable way that one is face-to-face with a true original who recognizes no borders in a march towards a muscular, original, globally switched-on sound.

What Justin Perkins (Kora, Kamelngoni, guitar, percussion), Teal Brown (drums, congas), Drew Heller (guitar, piano, fiddle), David Pransky (bass, guitar), and Luke Quaranta (Djembe, percussion) have wrought on TK2 reflects the many miles and musical journeys that have transpired since their studio debut.

The NYE pairing of Toubab Krewe with Jonathan Scales Fourchestra is sure to be an unforgettable occasion. Jonathan Scalesis a Steel Pan player who brings a whole new sense of vitality to this traditionally Caribbean instrument. Here you have a classically trained composer turned steel pan maestro, heavily influenced by sounds from banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck to rapper Jay-Z . . . It’s a whole new concoction with a jazz edge classical sensibility, that has been described as “joyously inventive” by the Jazz Times. Check them out in the video below: